Just Published My First Book: Sega Master System Game Guide

[Lord_Santa]

seems like an interesting project and a good read

one question though.... was Mario supposed to be the "fist" boss, or the "first"?

(Alex Kidd review)

[onemanfilmcrew]

[quote="lisalover1"]Sorry if I get a bit critical in this post, but after seeing those previews of the book, I feel kind of... underwhelmed. It just feels very bland. Yeah, it has good information, but that seems to be all it has.

For starters, as others have said, pictures are a big help. But you don't need to go overboard. Just a couple screenshots [1-3, one of the title screen, 1-2 of gameplay] would suffice; you can even print them in black and white. Just anything to spice up a page that is otherwise only text. A nice template would be great, too. Just to re-arrange the items on the page to make it more eye-catching.

Okay, now for some positive stuff. The content you have in the book sounds great; well-presented, well-researched, and very informative. All the text information a book like this should have. No complaints here. Also, I must commend you on the Table of Contents. I don't know why, but it just looks very nice.[/quote]


Thanks for the feedback. I thought about including things like screenshots, but in order to do it properly it would have doubled the page count, and therefore nearly doubled the cost of the book. I just don't think it would have added all that much, and certainly not enough to warrant a nearly $20 price tag.

I will say however that I am putting together a quarterly/bi-monthly classic gaming magazine that is going to be in full color and filled with screenshots/scans/etc.

[onemanfilmcrew]

[quote="Lord_Santa"]seems like an interesting project and a good read

one question though.... was Mario supposed to be the "fist" boss, or the "first"?

(Alex Kidd review)[/quote]


To quote that great thespian Homer Simpson

D'OH!!!!!

Guess I should have gone over everything for a 7th time....Sometimes things like that get through.

[Niode]

I don't think I've ever read a book that didn't have at least 1 type-o in it.

[onemanfilmcrew]

[quote="Niode"]I don't think I've ever read a book that didn't have at least 1 type-o in it.[/quote]


Plus if you think about it, having the first boss be "The Fist of Mario" does sound a bit daunting.

[onemanfilmcrew]

And just an update, Amazon finally got around to adding the description of the book. Also, after a full day of sales my official Amazon rank is #173,841. Movin on up (Movin on up)!

[lisalover1]

I don't mean to have the screenshots take up a whole page; maybe just putting them up in the upper-right corner of every page. I really don't mean to sound pretentious here, and I sincerely apologize if it seems like I'm trying to tell you how to write your book, but this is how I pictured a standard page would look like:

The reason I think screenshots are a good idea is this: Imagine you're trying to help identify an old Master System game for someone, but they only remember what it looked like. That's not much to go on unless they can see an example screenshot of the game. Thus, it would be very useful to include at least one screenshot er game for each game.

But, as I said before, you're onto something great, and I'll probably buy the book anyway. It's still a novel [no pun intended] idea, and I'm excited to see some other books in the series. I wish you good luck and good sales, onemanfilmcrew!

[Limewater]

But, as I said before, you're onto something great, and I'll probably buy the book anyway. It's still a novel [no pun intended] idea, and I'm excited to see some other books in the series. I wish you good luck and good sales, onemanfilmcrew!

Having read "Compute's Guide to Nintendo Games" and a couple of the old Jeff Rovin video game books in my youth, I think the lack of screenshots gives the book a rather nostalgic, retro feel.

And yes, I know that "Compute's Guide to Nintendo Games" did have a single screenshot for each game. But they were in black and white and you usually couldn't actually tell anything about the game from them.

[onemanfilmcrew]

I appreciate the feedback lisalover1. I have no problem with people giving me suggestions on how I can make things better. When i was just starting out as a photographer I would go to a professional camera shop to have my shots printed up and ask the "professionals" point blank "please tell me how my photos suck". If all one ever hears is praise, they will never improve.

That said, I looked over the pricing again and I could do a 250 page full color book and sell it for around $40-45. My thought would be to have the review on one page and a page full of screen shots. If there is enough demand for a project like that I don't mind putting the work into that.

[lisalover1]

If you do consider game screenshots, I would be more in favor of black-and-white screenshots. You can still see the game in action, while retaining relatively low production costs.